Dick and all,
Some time ago I was passed a letter written by the CPSU members to Airservices Australia a little over a year ago that I think has some relevance to this fantastic realisation that putting Flightwatch onto ATC has serious implications.
The second half of the letter goes like this:
CPSU will take the following opportunity to add its comments regarding the review and change. With the transition to TAAATS and the cessation of Flight Service, it was determined that several functions were best placed outside the ATC environment. These functions are the core of the Flight Information Service (FIS) and are provided by a specialist group of staff employed in the AusFIC.
The CPSU asserts that the establishment of the AusFIC enhanced the safety of Australian aviation by enabling the rapid dissemination of pertinent information directly to pilots.
The CPSU believes that proposed changes in work arrangements will result in less timely, delivery of operational and safety information and may contribute to a failure to provide traffic information and/or separation services.
The CPSU has not been formally advised or included in any safety assessments relating to proposed changes.
The CPSU members are proud of their track record of professionalism and service provision since the establishment of the AusFIC. AusFIC in an extremely flexible and cohesive work area; from data storage and manipulation functions to the tactical delivery of In-Flight information, AusFIC is an integrated an effective work unit.
Members have made significant continuous improvements during this period and are disappointed that their contribution is not recognised. Multi-skilling across AusFIC disciplines produces efficient and effective operation and one measure of this is the ratio of AusFIC console hours to rostered hours per officer as compared to ATC.
Members completely reject the AusFIC Services Review. The simple fact is that AusFIC is worth more than the sum of its parts that could be partitioned off elsewhere and this has not been identified or considered.
As is the case with the TCU consolidation reversal, the financial case for this ill-considered shuffle of services is marginal and enacting recommendations of the AusFIC Services Review will:
• have minimal, if any savings;
• increase the cost and complexity of ATC functions;
• result in dislocation of AusFIC staff.
There is less training for AusFIC to incorporate new functions than for other areas to undertake the specialist AusFIC functions and that therefore reduces both expense and time.
The re-alignment of AusFIC products into Service Delivery Lines is readily achievable and if retained within the existing AusFIC management structure, will retain multi-skilling and multi-disciplinary efficiencies.